Re:How Not to Die of Botulism (2013)
by stellar678 on Saturday June 17, 2017 @06:41PM
(#14578055)
This always struck me as weird because of how many people I know who cook a giant pot of rice in a rice cooker and just leave it on the counter as they eat the rice over a couple days. Never knew it to cause vomiting.
That's a good point and made me do some more research. The range at which B. cereus grows ends at around 50C -- the exact figure varies depending on the source. Generally, 65C seems to be considered safe. The "warm" mode of (some? check your manual) rice cookers is designed specifically to target that temperature range to avoid contamination[2][3].
[1] Gilbert RJ, Stringer MF, Peace TC. The survival and growth of Bacillus cereus in boiled and fried rice in relation to outbreaks of food poisoning. The Journal of Hygiene. 1974;73(3):433-444. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2130471/ Possibly the "seminal paper" when it comes to rice and B. cereus?
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_cooker#History
[3] Manual for some random rice cooker on Amazon: "In Keep warm status, it will reheat to maintain the temperature at 73C" http://img1.midea.com/my/Local_Library/info_instructions/ins...
I can't find it now, but I remember reading a stat about far more sushi restaurants in the US getting fined by health inspectors due to improper rice temperature handling rather than fish handling as I had intuitively expected.
The fish is easy, just keep it cold. The rice, not so simple. :)
The more you know. The suggestion is to cool it down as fast as possible and put it in the fridge. NHS says the "symptoms are relatively mild and usually last about 24 hours", so it seems unlikely that it's gonna kill you (IANA doctor).
[1] http://www.foodsafety.govt.nz/elibrary/industry/safe_cooling...
[2] http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-po...